Need For Speed ProStreet (Need For Speed Pro Street (PC))

Member Name: Gangsta-ash

Product:	Need For Speed Pro Street (PC)
Date:	05/01/08 (167 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent Graphics

Disadvantages: Different

Need for Speed ProStreet

Release Date: 23 Nov 2007
Publisher: EA Games
Platform: PC

Introduction:

This edition of the ever popular Need for Speed series takes us in a slightly different direction to the recent titles and feels like a hybrid of Gran Turismo and Project Gotham Racing mainly due to the courses you find yourself racing on and the pure amount of detail that has been included, This ones going for realism and really hits the spot. As in all Need for Speed games there are a variety of different game modes to choose from these include:

Speed Challenge - You will have to push your car to its limits in this race whilst dealing with inhibiting factors such as bumpy roads, harsh side winds and of course fellow street racers anxious to hinder your progress.
Grip - This mode takes on the appearance of a touring car race, Much like Gran Turismo you find yourself on famous race tracks across the world with several opponents.
Drift - Drift has been found in most of the newer Need for Speed titles and basically involves controlled slides round corners at as high speed as possible to gain points!
Drag - Another old favourite of Need for Speed fans drag involves racing down relatively straight roads with a manual gearbox pushing your car to its limits.

Loads of new vinyls and bodykits have also been included which will help you customise your car the way YOU want to see it!

Gameplay:

The overall gameplay has changed quite a bit in this version making it alot harder to control but this is due to it taking more of a driving simulator approach than previous titles and also includes extremely realistic damage effects something that the Need for Speed series has really lacked on in previous games, Although a little more difficult to master the driving style than before ProStreet creates an air of realism that will soon have you hooked and keeps the same controls its had so fans of the older titles should be able to get into the swing of things quickly enough.

Graphics:

Amazing attention to detail here which ranges from the smoke coming off your tires as you pull off and slide round corners to indvidual pieces of your car such as wing mirrors, doors and headlights flying off if you face a high speed collision! The texturing of the roads and the overall environment again is superb and almost looks like you are watching a live street race on your television and has everything from glassy reflections to accurate shadows covered your car even gets a build up of dirt on dry dusty roads and the surrounding scenery actually makes you wanna stop to admire the views!

Sound:

As with all recent EA games titles you will have an extensive playlist to choose from which as always will include a selection of over 35 tracks ranging from bouncy hip hop to rock and punk from artist such as Plan B, The toxic Avenger and Airbourne. The sound effects will push your sound card to its limits as EA have included extremely high quality sounds for everything right down to debris hitting the inside of your wheel arches and harsh cross winds causing the various flags and banners to flap about. The tyre screeching and engine noises were really impressive too and make the game sound very real.

Overall this is an extremely well polished title which will have you playing for hours even if like me your not that good and as such would be money extremely well spent.

Price & Availability:

You can puchase this title for £30 in HMV £25 on Amazon or £10 from E-bay so if you shop around your are sure to be able to get a good deal.

System Requirements:

Windows XP or VISTA with latest service pack installed
Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) CPU running at 2.8GHz or higher (3.0GHz if running Windows Vista)
128Mb DirectX compliant video card with Pixel shader 2.0 or above ( AGP or PCIe)
512MB RAM (1GB if running Windows Vista)
DirectX compatible sound card
1.5 GB of HD space required to install game
DirectX 9.0c June 2007 edition

**** This Review Can Also Be Found At www.ciao.co.uk ****

Summary: Great Game Well Worth Buying!